National team captain Maya Yoshida aspires to make sporting history for Japan at the World Cup in Qatar in around six months’ time, but to have a chance at that he must be selected and healthy enough to play in soccer’s showpiece event for the third st…
URGENT: Japan’s Jan.-March GDP contracts annualized real 1.0%
Japan’s economy in the January-March period contracted a real 0.2 percent from the previous quarter, or an annualized 1.0 percent, government data showed Wednesday. Japan saw the first contraction in two quarters of real gross domestic product, or the …
Soccer: Draw for East Asia E-1 Championship finals announced
The Japan Football Association on Tuesday announced the draw for the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Championship finals, which have been moved from China to Japan. The Japan men’s team will face Hong Kong at Kashima Stadium on July 19, then China o…
Japan to accept small-scale tours from 4 countries as it opens up
Japan will accept small-scale tours for vaccinated tourists from the United States, Australia, Thailand and Singapore as a trial later this month toward the full-scale reception of foreign visitors planned for June, the government said Tuesday. Japan h…
Gov’t to ask shinkansen operators to advance quake-resistance work
The Japanese government said Tuesday it will request companies operating bullet trains to accelerate construction work to boost the earthquake resistance of shinkansen lines if it is technically viable. The move comes after services on the Tohoku Shink…
Japan Cabinet to OK draft extra budget to cushion rising prices
Japan’s Cabinet is set to approve Tuesday a 2.7 trillion yen ($21 billion) draft extra budget for fiscal 2022 to ease the pain of surging energy, food and other prices stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Once it clears parliament, the supplemen…
Court finds COVID restrictions for Tokyo restaurant chain illegal
A Japanese court ruled Monday that an order by the Tokyo metropolitan government for a restaurant chain operator to reduce business hours amid the coronavirus pandemic was illegal, finding the case did not fulfill certain conditions. But the Tokyo Dist…
Soccer: Mitoma nets winner, but Union fall short in title race
Kaoru Mitoma’s early goal sparked Royale Union Saint-Gilloise to a 2-0 victory over Anderlecht, but the team from Brussels came up short in the Belgian championship race after Club Brugge sealed the title on Sunday. Club Brugge claimed their third stra…
Japan says Sakhalin energy projects do not contradict Russia sanctions
Japan has no plan to pull out of two major energy projects off the Russian island of Sakhalin and the policy does not contradict the slew of sanctions it placed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, a senior government official said Sunday. “If we gi…
Baseball: Japan ace Yamamoto pitches Buffaloes past Marines
Yoshinobu Yamamoto survived a series of scrapes to go eight innings and earn the win as the Orix Buffaloes beat the Lotte Marines 1-0 in the Pacific League on Saturday. The ace of Japan’s gold medal-winning Tokyo Olympic team, Yamamoto (4-2) allowed fi…